1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a gas-insulated thyristor assembly and, in particular, to a thyristor assembly comprised of at least one thyristor column in which disk-type thyristors are stacked side by side, held in place under spring pressure and separated by heat sinks which serve at least partially for the conduction of current.
2. Field of the Invention
A thyristor assembly of the above type which employs liquid cooling is disclosed in the German Offenlegungsschrift No. 1,914,790. Such thyristor assemblies are used as building blocks for modules in the construction of air or oil insulated valves for converters. In such case, groups of circuit components are associated with the thyristor assemblies for protecting them against overcurrents and overvoltages, and drive modules are also associated with the assemblies for transmitting control pulses to the disk-type thyristors. Converters of this type are used for rectifying high voltages, for example, in highvoltage d-c transmission systems (HGUe systems).
When HGUe installations are used in areas of high density, the size of the installation is required to be as small as possible in order to conserve space. Also, for operational reasons, the converters used therein must have completely encapsulated valves and grounded encapsulation. This precludes the use of valves with air insulation. Moreover, while oil-insulated valves in which the thyristor columns are placed in an oil-filled tank can be used, such use is also frequently precluded because of the combustible nature of the oil. The use oil-filled tanks is also disadvantageous in that the entire tank must be drained for repairs, thereby shutting down the entire installation for an extended period of time.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a thyristor assembly of the above type which is both safe and compact.